Bring your Phrasebook!!!

I was out in Taiyuan tonight, walking the streets looking for food and Internet. I saw some dim sum steaming in a wooden basket outside and I was suckered into trying them :) ... so I went in. I'm a big fan of the local small restaurants and street food ... this is where I've found so far some amazing food and for very cheap. This was no different the dim sum was on offer for $0.40
Nothing could've prepared me for what happened next.



I was eating my dimsum and drinking some green tea; behind me was a local Chinese guy eating and drinking ... all of a sudden the hostess brings me a glass of some local hard liquor from the guy behind me ... so I drank it, expecting it to be mild like in Korea or Japan ... NO WAY!!! ... this shit was freaking strong! ... it tasted like I would imagine pure alcohol would ... I looked at the bottle, it was some 52% liquor that looked like Chinese vodka, damn it was bad! After that, me and Wu Min, that was his name, began to exchange a few words with the help of my phrasebook and others at the restaurant/bar helping out where possible :) ... it was soo much fun and a good atmosphere, everyone was smiling and giving their try at the English language ;). Wu Min was a married manufacturing manager from just outside of Shanghai, he enjoyed his Shanghai made cigarettes and on occasion kept offering me one: I continued to refuse.

As the night went on, he kept pouring the drinks and I reluctantly kept drinking ... he would not cheer me unless I had the same amount in my glass. We finished a bottle he had and he got another one! I am not a heavy drinker, in fact I hate hard liquor, but somehow I felt obligated to go on :) ... and I did. After some 6 big shots, the entire small restaurant was participating. The daughter of the hostess would come by and offer to help with the translation, but with little luck as she too did not know English very well. It turned out that the family owning the restaurant was from the Sichuan province. They kept offering me to sleep at their place for a cheap fee of $4 and I would've, but unfortunately I already booked a place at a more expensive hotel in the city.

I took a bunch of pictures and Wu Min took one of me on his phone. After hours of discussion and finishing the 2nd bottle, I had to get going ... he offered to walk me home, as he was worried that I had too much; surprisingly to myself as well, I didn't feel too bad and told him that I will go on on my own. As it happens, I write this just an hour after it happened :) ... before I got going, I promised Wu Min that I will go to Shanghai in a couple of weeks and I will give him a call when I arrive there to go out for drinks ... i hope to keep my promise.

This was one amazing night ... an experience I live for and I travel for!
What can I say; ever since I bought my phrasebook 3 days ago, I have had 3 very cool conversations; one with a tea merchant in Qingdao, the couple on the train and now Wu Min at the bar/restaurant in Taiyuan :) ... I feel very lucky to have met these people and felt their generously.